The 3rd Meeting of European World Heritage Associations will take place in the Hanseatic City of Lübeck from 5 to 6 October 2017. It is being organized by the German World Heritage Sites Association, the German Commission for UNESCO and Lübeck & Travemünde Marketing GmbH, and features as its theme “Sharing World Heritage”.
Following the launch of the initiative in Strasbourg in 2015 and ...

The World Heritage Centre has learned with great sadness of the recent passing of Wayne Lotter, courageous defender of natural heritage and wildlife, who was attacked by a gunman in Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania) on 16 August 2017. The Director of UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Dr. Mechtild Rössler, presents her sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the renowned elephant ...

On 12 August 2017, a joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission arrived on Wrangel Island (Russian Federation). Together with Herald Island and a vast ocean territory, Wrangel Island forms part of the World Heritage property “Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve”, which is the northernmost site inscribed on the World Heritage List.
Francesco Bandarin, Assistant ...

Youth Building Peace
The world has never been so young and it is getting younger every day. The development of any society depends on how well it nurtures its young women and men, how well they are supported.
In 2015, there were 1.2 billion young people in the world, and more than 600 million lived in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Young people carry the heaviest burdens of ...

The Director of the World Heritage Centre expresses her deep condolences at the loss of lives and destructions caused by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck China’s southwestern province of Sichuan on Tuesday 8 August.
According to initial reports, the epicentre of the earthquake in southwestern Sichuan province was in the mountainous Jiuzhaigou County, which includes the Jiuzhaigou ...

This year, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the landmark UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. This is an opportunity to honour the rights of indigenous peoples and their unique contribution to achieving mutual understanding, peace and sustainable development. Indigenous peoples are custodians and practitioners of unique cultures and relationships with the natural ...

The Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park (Philippines) has been officially designated as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA)—and an “area to be avoided”—by the International Maritime Organization. The endorsement is a major breakthrough, as it will require international vessels to avoid the World Heritage site, reducing the impact of noise and pollution, and decreasing the risk of future ship ...

Over the last several months, the World Heritage Centre has received numerous messages from citizens and NGOs expressing their concerns regarding logging activities within the Polish part of the transboundary World Heritage property “Białowieża Forest” (Belarus/Poland).
The competent authorities of the State Party of Poland as well as the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Body IUCN are ...

Krakow, Poland, 12 July—The World Heritage Committee, meeting in Krakow since 2 July, closed its annual session today. During the session, the Committee inscribed 21 new sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. It also extended or modified the boundaries of five sites already on the List.
The new inscriptions bring to 1,073 the total number of sites on the World Heritage List. Angola and ...

A World Heritage partners event and panel discussion, sponsored by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, took place on the 7th of July in Krakow on the occasion of the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee.
The Partners' event, for the fourth consecutive year, provided a platform for discussing private sector partners’ contributions to World Heritage conservation and promotion ...

Krakow, Poland, 10 July—The World Heritage Committee, meeting in Krakow since 2 July, has decided to remove Georgia’s Gelati Monastery from the List of World Heritage in Danger.
A decision adopted on Sunday, introduced a major reduction in the boundaries of the Georgian site of f Bagrati Cathedral and Gelati Monastery, inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1994 and on the List in Danger in ...

Krakow, Poland, 9 July—The World Heritage Committee, meeting in Krakow since 2 July, this afternoon ended the inscription of sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List with the final addition of three cultural sites in Brazil, Turkey and the United Kingdom, and the approval of the extensions of Strasbourg: from Grande-île to Neustadt, a European urban scene (France) and The Bauhaus and its Sites ...

The World Heritage Committee meeting in Krakow since 2 July today inscribed cultural sites in Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Poland, and the Russian Federation, along with one that spans Croatia, Italy and Montenegro.
The sites added, in order of inscription are:
Historic City of Yazd (Islamic Republic of Iran)
The City of Yazd is located in the middle of the Iranian plateau, 270 ...

On 7 July, the new donor platform Marketplace for World Heritage went live on the World Heritage Centre website. The webpage was launched at an event held during the 41st World Heritage Committee, which is currently taking place in Krakow, Poland.
Participants attending the World Heritage Committee were invited to explore this innovative new platform, which showcases global priority projects ...

Krakow, Poland, 8 July—The World Heritage Committee this afternoon inscribed three cultural sites in Cambodia, China and India.
The sites added, in order of inscription are:
Temple Zone of Sambor Prei Kuk, Archaeological Site of Ancient Ishanapura (Cambodia)
The archaeological site of Sambor Prei Kuk, “the temple in the richness of the forest” in the Khmer language, has been identified as ...

The World Heritage Committee this morning inscribed three cultural sites in Angola, Eritrea and South Africa. With these inscriptions, Angola and Eritrea make their first entries to the World Heritage List.
The sites added, in order of inscription are:
Mbanza Kongo, vestiges of the capital of the former Kingdom of Kongo (Angola)
The town of Mbanza Kongo, located on a plateau at an altitude ...

Krakow, Poland, 7 July—The World Heritage Committee, in this afternoon’s session, inscribed natural sites in Argentina and China on UNESCO’s World Heritage List as well as a transboundary site in Mongolia and the Russian Federation. It also approved the extension of the World Heritage site of the Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and the Ancient Beech Forests of Germany, which now ...

The World Heritage Committee meeting in Krakow has inscribed Hebron / Al Khalil Old town (Palestine) and W-Arly-Pendjari Complex (Benin, Burkina Faso) on the World Heritage List during its morning session. The Committee simultaneously added the site of Hebron / Al Khalil to the List of World Heritage in Danger.
The new sites in order of inscription are:
Hebron / Al Khalil Old ...

Krakow, Poland, 6 July—The World Heritage Committee has inscribed the Historic Centre of Vienna on List of World Heritage in Danger due to high-rise projects in the middle of the Austrian capital.
In its decision, the Committee regrets that the Vienna Ice-Skating Club—Intercontinental Hotel project fails to comply fully with previous Committee decisions, notably concerning the height of new ...

Krakow, Poland, 4 July—The World Heritage Committee meeting in Krakow has decided to remove Simien National Park from the List of World Heritage in Danger in recognition of improvements in its management and of measures taken to reduce overgrazing and visitor impact.
The World Heritage Committee welcomed Ethiopia’s commitment in building an alternative road to alleviate the disturbance of ...